Politics

Legislative Update By Delegate Barry Knight Since 2009, I have had the unique privilege and honor to represent the citizens of the 81st House District in the Virginia House of Delegates. I was asked by the City of Virginia Beach and Oceana Naval Master Jet Base to patron legislation that would keep trespassing drones out of military landing zones, thereby not adding unnecessary risk to the lives of those who serve to protect our freedoms. HB 1636 seeks to protect military aircraft by prohibiting use of a drone within a 1-mile radius of any military airfield or helicopter landing zone. Drones are a new and exciting technology but use must be done so in a responsible manner. HB 1637 creates a special license plate that bears the legend “PROTECT SEA LIFE”. This bill reflects Vi...

Legislative Update By Delegate Jason Miyares The honor of my life is representing the citizens of Virginia Beach in the Virginia House of Delegates. In 1965, my mother Miriam Miyares fled Cuba as a scared, penniless 19 year old girl, leaving a country where the government has no consent of the governed to almost fifty years to the day in 2015 being able to vote for her son to represent her in one of the oldest democracies in the world. This is truly an example of the American Miracle. 2019 is the 400th Anniversary of the founding of the oldest continuous democratic body in the Western Hemisphere, the Virginia General Assembly. Virginia has come a long way since the first meeting of the legislative body in a Jamestown church on a hot July 30th, 1619. However, the same duties ...

Our Venerable Congressman Bill Whitehurst What is life like after Congress? As Members retire, they often ask themselves what life will be like, especially if they have served a long time. In my case, it was eighteen years. For others, much longer. In any event, it depends on what you make of it. For some that means returning to a law firm, for others to be a lobbyist, as several of my colleagues on the House Armed Services did, representing defense contractors. I headed back to academe, thanks to the late George Kaufman. It happened like this: Early in 1985, I announced my retirement and one evening, my late wife, Janie, and I dined with George and Linda Kaufman. George asked Janie   what I would like to do now that I was going to leave Congress. Janie replied, “Bill would love to go bac...

Forty two years in journalism made me a compulsive note taker. I take notes when I’m on the phone, sometimes when I’m watching TV and any time I’m at a public meeting. About the only place I don’t take notes is in church. Pity, too, because I wish I could tell you exactly what Fr. Steve DeLeon told Star of the Sea parishioners in Virginia Beach on the first weekend of December. During his homily the priest surprised the congregation when he announced that he’d hired a moonlighting police officer to guard the church during services. In fact, the uniformed officer was posted in the lobby at that very moment. Heads spun around to the back of the church. I hadn’t noticed the cop when I slunk in, late - as usual - for the 8 a.m. Mass. But on the way out there he was, holding open the door ...

In his rush to get new Democrats on the voter rolls before the 2016 presidential election, former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe signed a blanket order restoring the voting rights of about 206,000 felons. When the Virginia Supreme Court slapped down this April 2016 move as illegal McAuliffe began churning out restorations one by one. That was legal. By the time he left office, McAuliffe had restored the civil rights of approximately 173,000 felons. This meant they could vote, serve on juries and run for political office. But there were other consequences to McAuliffe’s sweeping move: Those newly enfranchised felons were now free to march into court to ask for the restoration of their gun rights. Not sure the liberals who supported McAuliffe plumping up the voter rolls saw that coming. ...

Media reporting on this year’s Virginia General Assembly session focused on the primary disagreement that resulted in an extended budget impasse: Obamacare’s optional program to expand the entitlement state by extending Medicaid benefits to able-bodied adults. This disagreement has been part of each of the last five General Assembly sessions, but advocates for the full implementation of Obamacare in Virginia took a different approach this year.  Having watched Governor McAuliffe repeatedly try and fail to extend this entitlement to those not currently eligible, Obamacare supporters attempted to rebrand Medicaid expansion as “conservative.” Expanding Obamacare in Virginia will cost the state over $300 million, accelerate the rate of growth of the fastest increasing portion of the state b...